Of Ferrets and Weasels
by Kotodashi Kyoshi
Summary: Ron and Draco come to a sort of understanding


Written for the QLFC round 12, for the Kestrels Seeker position. Prompt was to write about Ron and a relationship he had with another Hogwarts student, but it couldn't be his siblings, Harry or Hermione.

I tried to stay as canon as I think this conversation would go if it had actually happened.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but if I owned the judges I would ask them to please stop asking for stories to be as canon as possible to be scored well. It takes the fun out of it. (Really though I love you guys, thank you for all your hard work!)

* * *

Ron smiled wryly to himself, watching the orange and yellow leaves fall from the trees as the wind softly swayed through their branches. Wiping a tear from his eye, he let his eyes fall back to the headstone in front of him.

"Fall always was your favorite season. You said it reminded you of my hair," he laughed dryly.

"I never understood her fascination with your hair. She was always prattling on about how thankful she was that at least one child got the red hair. Shame it had to be Rose."

Ron rolled his eyes at the familiar drawl that came from behind him, "what are you doing here, Malfoy?"

He saw the blond out of his peripheral come to stand beside him.

"I came to pay my respects, same as I do every year, Weasley."

Ron huffed as he turned to glare at the man who had somehow become a staple in his life over the last thirty years. "I'm not in the mood for it today, Malfoy."

"Then just stand here in silence and don't get all worked up about it," Draco sighed, moving forward to lay a bouquet of white roses on the headstone. They made the bouquet of Gerber Daisies that Ron had brought seem small in comparison, and it made the redhead even more upset.

"Why do you think you need to show me up? Today of all days, you couldn't have just left it alone and come a different day? What are you trying to prove, Malfoy?"

"I'm not trying to prove anything! I simply came to pay my respects on the day of her death, she was my partner, Weasley-"

"She's MY wife!"

"Yes, I know that. The whole bloody wizarding world knows that, Weasley. You know, you're going to have to get used to having me around. I'll not have you ruining Scorpius and Rose's relationship, as much as I loathe the idea, our families are going to be intertwined one day. Tori and I adore Rose, and Hermione accepted their relationship, it's time you did too, and get down from that bloody high horse you're riding."

"That's rich coming from you. Like father like son, always trying to take what's mine. Don't you lot have enough already?!"

Draco blanched, and furrowed his brows in frustration, "are you drunk, Weasley?!"

"I know how you felt about her!"

Draco took a step back and looked as if Ron had dealt him a physical blow. He opened his mouth to retort, but shut it again after a few seconds.

"Yea that's right, she was completely oblivious, but I knew better. All through school you always made fun of me and my family for being poor, while you had everything you ever wanted. You got a slap on the wrist for your actions in the war, your family somehow managed to pull through and still be successful, then you had to go and get yourself all caught up in her department working with her all the time. You think I'm stupid, Malfoy? It wasn't coincidence that she was on all your cases, or have you forgotten that I'm an Auror too? I know how it works. I saw the way you watched her, and even when she got sick you still managed to take more of her time than you should have ever gotten!"

"You're right, I asked for her to be on my cases because I wanted the best, and no I wouldn't leave her alone when she got sick, because I couldn't and still can't wrap my mind around the Muggle cancer that managed to take down the brightest witch of our age. And OBVIOUSLY you've forgotten that I apologized for my behavior in school."

"You call that an apology?"

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "what do you want me to say, Weasley? I'm sorry for being such a prat in school, because even though you think I had everything I ever wanted, it was far from it. You want to know the real reason I was so terrible to you and your friends? I was jealous."

Ron looked at him like he had sprouted a second head, "jealous of what?!"

"Of YOU! Because YOU had everything I ever wanted! Parents that loved you and weren't afraid to show it. Friends that were genuine and liked you for you, not for your name. And yes, in the end, because you had her. Because when the war was over, and the world wanted nothing to do me because I was a Malfoy, she showed me what it finally meant to have a friend. She gave me a second chance, when no one else would, to prove that I was a changed man."

Ron just stared at him, processing everything that he'd just said, remembering all of the things Hermione had once said to try and get him to change his mind about Draco. "After the war...after the war we had a really rough go of it. She wanted to go back to school and Harry and I went straight to Auror training. It was hard, not seeing her every day. When we would get to see each other, she was always going on about something you Slytherins had done. Something that had her attention, her fascination, and I felt like I was losing her."

He paused and gave a short laugh while scratching the back of his head. "For a while, I thought I was going to lose her to you. It drove me bloody insane. She was so determined to help you lot make your way in the world, said you guys had it the worst out of anyone. Honestly, it made me fall in love with her all over again. She was so good, so pure. Too good for me, but when she looked at me she made me feel like the only man in the world."

"Well then there you have it, in the end you had everything I wanted, Weasley. But I moved on from that, and I love Astoria, and I love my son, who very much loves your daughter. So I would like it if you could find it in yourself to accept him, and give them your blessing."

Ron turned back to the headstone and shoved his hands in his pockets, his deep breaths forming white puffs in the air. After a few minutes of silence he sighed and shook his head, "you know, she once told me that ferrets and weasels were in the same species family...said we were a lot alike. I would have never thought you wanted my life over your own. You were so terrible in school, I always wondered how there could be Pureblood families like mine when most Pureblood families were so cold, like yours."

"Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of having a fanatical father who honestly thought he was better than everyone else. All I ever wanted was to fit in, honestly. Have a normal childhood. You lot were about as normal as you could get." Draco smirked.

Ron rolled his eyes, "you know when she got sick she wrote a whole roll of parchment on how to take care of the kids. She even wrote a whole foot on why I should be nice to you and your family, how much she loved how happy Rosie is with Scorpius. I told her it wasn't normal for Weasley's and Malfoy's to be mixing."

Draco didn't respond for a few minutes but finally smirked and shook his head, "when she got sick, she told me that I wasn't allowed to torment you for the rest of our lives. She made me promise to extend the olive branch first, and as many times as it would take for you to accept it. She said to tell you to do it for Rose."

Ron gave a small laugh and smiled a lopsided smile, "I'll do anything for my Rosie. But we aren't going to be friends."

"Merlin's beard, no. We can be civil, for the children's sake," Draco turned to leave. "If you tell anyone what I said earlier, I'll deny it."

"Oh I'm telling everyone, Harry will get a kick out of it."

Draco rolled his eyes, "I'm serious, Weaselbee."

Ron turned to look at him with a smirk as the blond walked away, "me too, Ferret face." he called after him.

Ron turned back and shook his head as the wind picked up, mixing the two bouquets of flowers into a giant pile of petals. "No way in hell will I ever be friends with that ferret. I'll play nice, for Rosie, and Scorpius really isn't a bad kid. Reckon he gets that from Astoria."

"I heard that!"

o0o

A few years later, Scorpius and Rose did get married, with Ron's blessing.

Ron even shared a cigar with Draco, and they got drunk off fire whiskey at the reception, while bringing up stories from past years.

They'll both deny it ever happened.

* * *

So, there's a little more Hermione in it than maybe there should be, BUT it's mostly Ron and Draco. And since Draco sort of redeemed himself in the end there, I imagine that many years later this conversation could be a total possibility.


End file.
